Hazel Turned 1?!!

How did that happen?  For me, things have been so different with baby #3.  Every baby moment has been cherished and mourned, mourned because it lasts only a short time...  There is no doubt that this first year has felt faster than the first year of my first two.

She has done this on other occasions, but never so adamantly- the morning of her 1st birthday, she very pointedly refused to let me feed her oatmeal.  Not because she suddenly decided she doesn't enjoy it, but rather because she somehow knew this day was a milestone and she should now be old enough to rise above my services.  So, after my 5th or 6th struggle to remove the now slimy spoon from her monkey grip, I relented and started plopping it into what I hoped would be manageable heaps on her tray.  After I had finished eating, I could tell she finally realized that oatmeal is a bit of a challenge, when eaten sans spoon, and so I thought I would give it another try with the spoon.  Alas, she was not ready to give in so easily and took the spoon from me.  Luckily, we have a near infinite supply and I grabbed another.  She confiscated that with her free, slimy hand.  Seeing my opportunity, I have it one final shot, and she let me scoop the goop into her mouth.

How could I forget the "3rd-spoon's-the-charm" trick?

I'm feeling a bit guilty, it's obvious that the 3rd child is already getting less of a special treatment...  in iPhoto, I have smart photos of my favorite photos of the kids for each year.  The Frog has 326 photos, Peach has 243 and Hazel has 161.  The Frog had a massive pile of gifts for his 1st birthday, and I gave Hazel a couple of books (one of which hasn't arrived yet..) and 2 pairs of shoes.  I will say, though, The Frog only got a banana bread muffin w/ cream cheese frosting for his birthday (he had no sugar at ALL until his first birthday!) Whereas, I gave Hazel an extra big smash cake so we wouldn't be forced into eating cake all week.  (I feel like I still haven't recovered from our 3 birthdays in a row about a month ago.)

The cake, however was kind of pathetic.  I've decided to try and get rid of some of the boxed cakes I have around, and thought I'd do the cake mix+sour cream+instant pudding one (have you seen that? Makes the cake so moist!) but then when I went to the pantry, I sadly discovered that I only had pistachio pudding (for my St. Patrick's day cake...).  Well, I used it and it was kinda weird to have a green cake with chocolate frosting...

But I hope she knows we love her so much and are so grateful for the little ball of sunshine that she is!  I can't go anywhere without people commenting about how cute she is and getting a smile from her.

hasn't figured out blowing.  never fear, the siblings took care of it!

almost forgot to get a pic with our 1st birthday hat!

 We stripped her down before dessert, but she totally didn't need it!  She looked really quite clean afterward.

 And my mom thought we might even be able to salvage some of her cake!  (i didn't though... ew.)

 At first, we Hazel had absolutely no interest in her gifts, until her siblings started unwrapping them for her.  She caught on pretty quickly after that (and it was hard to get the siblings to stop "helping").

 I was really surprised by all the fighting that ensued over playing with baby toys...  I think I may start doing presents before dinner in the future.  Maybe at breakfast?  Just sometime not so close to bedtime.

Happy birthday Hazel!!  We sure love you!

PS THANK YOU for finally sleeping all night- your first night as a 1-year old!